Can't believe the stuff I'm reading in the press this morning about Cav ranting because the Australians didn't get involved in trying to bring the break back. Since when has it been good tactics to help chase down a break when you have one of your own team in it ? True it is that Stuart O'Grady isn't hasn't won a stage for a while, but the chances of Goss or anyone else beating Cav in a bunch sprint has to be remote given his form of late. I would have thought the team would be wise to do what they did-let the Pom's do the chasing.

The truth is that the English team missed the first break, then were asleep and missed the second one too ! Blind Freddy could see that a motivated 20 man break would be hard to pin back. If they wanted to bring the break back to give Cav his day in glory, then they needed a man or two in the break to drag the chain a bit, or they needed to dig really deep and get together with whoever they could to pull them back.

Whinging afterwards because they got their tactics wrong just looks like bad form to me. Well done to Vinokourov and guys in the break for making it stick.

Unfortunately Cav is inclined to have a whinge if things don’t work out to suit him, and he has had an ordinary year so far, and therefore a rant by him is not unexpected when he gets well beaten.

But then the team tactics of the Aussie Orica GE team were ordinary IMHO in the TdF, and I must admit I was again disappointed by the fact that there did not appear to be any team plan by the Australian team in the Olympic road race.

Now now children, play nice. Athletes at this level perform with a lot of demons and a lot of pressure. And at the end of the day, when the media are focused on getting a comment and a microphone is thrust in the face of a barely recovering mass of aches and shakes, something has to be said. Sometimes it doesn't come across well.

Sometimes the more HONEST truth comes about in those circumstances, but I will still be interested to hear his later more considered comment before casting bad judgement.

Besides, I expect that Oz will have lots of disappointments over the next two weeks. I hope our reference to whingeing poms is not played back on ourselves.

Nitram wrote:Can't believe the stuff I'm reading in the press this morning about Cav ranting because the Australians didn't get involved in trying to bring the break back. Since when has it been good tactics to help chase down a break when you have one of your own team in it ? True it is that Stuart O'Grady isn't hasn't won a stage for a while, but the chances of Goss or anyone else beating Cav in a bunch sprint has to be remote given his form of late. I would have thought the team would be wise to do what they did-let the Pom's do the chasing....

If admitting defeat and not trying to make a race of it is wise then yes the Aussie team did the right thing.It begs the question of who are the real sooks, those who try and fail or those who fail to try?

blkmcs wrote:If admitting defeat and not trying to make a race of it is wise then yes the Aussie team did the right thing.It begs the question of who are the real sooks, those who try and fail or those who fail to try?

the aussies rode with good tactics. the Brits chose to try and control the race, so the aussies put O'Grady up the road and let the Poms chase. this was always intended to ensure that if the Poms caught the break, they wouldn't have the legs to deliver Cav to the line. cycling tactics are always negative - you don't win just by taking care of your own team, you need to break the others down. matt white knows what he's doing.

blkmcs wrote:If admitting defeat and not trying to make a race of it is wise then yes the Aussie team did the right thing.It begs the question of who are the real sooks, those who try and fail or those who fail to try?

the aussies rode with good tactics. the Brits chose to try and control the race, so the aussies put O'Grady up the road and let the Poms chase. this was always intended to ensure that if the Poms caught the break, they wouldn't have the legs to deliver Cav to the line. cycling tactics are always negative - you don't win just by taking care of your own team, you need to break the others down. matt white knows what he's doing.

If good tactics means ensuring that your riders are not in a position to finish in the medals then I would agree with you, the Aussies rode a blinder.

It amazes me that so many BNA posters were apparently privy to the the Australian team's strategy (or lack of one, as the case may be). Can't help but wonder why I can't find a mid-race post on the forum from the team manager seeking your expert race strategy advice. Well, I wasn't one of those with the inside line, but I'll speculate that the Aussies knew that most teams would want to avoid a sprint finish, and it would likely be a race for a strong opportunist who was not marked as a favorite. Why else would they select O'Grady, Rodgers and Gerrans - fast they may be, but they are not a sprint train. As for Cavendish, he has shown time after time that he is not a true sportsman. That is why, despite his success, that he is so widely disliked and disrespected.

Team GB were beaten by their own arrogance. They expected to reel in the break like they had been doing at will in France. I reckon no race radios also didn't help them. They are a terrificly talented team, but one trick ponies.

Last edited by norbs on Sun Jul 29, 2012 12:15 pm, edited 1 time in total.

norbs wrote:Team GB were beaten by their own arrogance. They expected to real in the break like they had been doing at will in France. I reckon no race radios also didn't help them. They are a terrificly talented team, but one trick ponies.

no radios and no Aussies or Norwegian's to lead the train

poor diddums Cav and well done to O'Grady, up front for so long, it would have been nice to see him win a medal but top ten is a good result

jules21 wrote:Rupert Guinness said O'Grady was 230 km on the front - if that's "failing to try" then i'll eat my shorts

Absolutely spot on.

It was always going to be a bit of a lottery given the tactics of GB and their deserved favoritism if it came to a bunch sprint. Why would any team want to help GB given they have the fastest sprinter? It makes less than no sense, it would be detrimental to your own chances. In the end the tactic by all the other teams worked in the end - if it had come down to a bunch sprint would Wiggo and Froome have been able to lead out Cav? They were definitely fading. So, even if it came together there would have been a chance to beat Cav. As it was, having someone in the break and having a break succeed, was always going to make the winner a bit of a lottery. Someone like Vinokourov, who is very good at taking chances like this, was one of the likely winners in this scenario. Good on him, he put himself in the right place at the right time. Team GB couldn't pull off their strategy, hell, they tried, can't make it work every time. The Australians were clearly playing a game of having more than one option, wasn't it O'Grady who started the first breakaway, that looks like a plan to me.

If the Poms were so smart and "had" the game plan, then they would of know not to let someone like Stuart O'Grady get away in the first place. It's not as if he some noobie without any form or true grit!

Yep, I'm gunna help another country chase down my own country man in a break, just so their man can win the race. (fools)

Foo

I don't suffer fools easily and so long as you have done your best,you should have no regrets.Goal 6000km

I've only seen one reference from Cav to the Aussies, and it seems to have been blown sky high. Giving the whining from some of our other sports, the blubbering from the swimmer and Goss regularly blaming everyone but his mum for not winning, Cav's comment doesn't seem too bad to me.

Bit sad that Stuey didn't medal though, although I loved Canc's tweet about him not carrying the flag. I think I've forgiven him for squishing that break with Cadel a couple of years ago. The tweet, and maybe those legs. Haven't seen the collarbone confirmed, but ...

Yes, it certainly sounds like sour grapes to me.And if the Aus team's plan was to sit back and make Team GB do all the hard work what's wrong with that? They weren't the only team out there and Team GB could have dropped back and forced others to tow the line....but this would have gone against their plan...which didn't pay off for them on the day.As much as it is about riding skill and fitness it is also about tactics and unfortunately for team GB their tactics didn't work.

I can see how, to team GB, it looked like everyone was against them (probably because they were), but to complain about it afterwards is a bit unsportsmanlike IMHO.

What I also thought was funny was that they were touting team GB early on as a team of 5 that were riding like a team of 10. If that was really the case and they were the strong and mighty everyone was saying they were then they should have expected that everyone else would lag behind their awesomeness and they'd reel in any challengers....but they weren't and they didn't.

Good on you Aussies for running your own race. It was a pity Rogers wasn't able to catch O'Grady or it may have been a different result....

Perhaps Rogers should start complaining that team GB should have done more to help him catch the breakaway riders so he could have helped O'Grady.....???

Clearly the assumption that the Gold medal was to be handed to him by Wiggins was false.Dreamteams' plan came apart, when at the crucial stage of the race, the plan had to change.(and with no radios for direction, decisions had to be made by individuals, and that was lacking)Welcome to Cycling. In competition, that's what happens.Didn't even have the respect for his Team, and all their "work", to beat Greipel in the bunch finish.Leaves it very open, to the prospect, that the same would have occured in a "Sprinter's Finish". IMO.Olympic sook, sad but true. Turned into a whinger in the end.

Lone Rider- I rode on the long, dark road... before I danced under the lights.

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